I really like this piece by James Franco about McDonald’s. Say what you will about McDonald’s, but one thing I’ve always loved about McDonald’s is that it provided some comfort no matter where you were. If you’re traveling in some part of China and need to just step away from it all, eat something familiar, McDonald’s is the place to go. There have been many times where I just needed a place to sit, without going into the topic of whether I should buy anything or not.

This indicates to researchers that chronic exposure to radiation from the explosion has had no impact on overall mammal populations. Whatever fallout may have come from the initial explosion was completely offset by the benefits of life without humans.

I’ve used and loved Evernote for a long time. However over the past year, I’ve been making many attempts to migrate away from it. It’s not exactly one specific reason/issue that is causing me to move away, but many little quirks that give you the feeling of death by a thousand cuts. Sadly they’ve also killed Evernote Food which I quite liked, but that’s understandable, as it always felt like some kind of a side project.

Nowadays I seldom use Skitch or Penultimate, as they now feel clunky and troublesome. It’s not entirely Evernote’s fault, as there are other factors that count against it, such as the current version of OS X offering pretty good annotation fools, and a solid Notes app. However, Evernote’s feature set is still powerful enough that they should be able to get through this tough period.

If you’re like me, you’ll read a lot, you’ll feel lost, and you’ll be intimidated. And then eventually, after months and months of reading stuff that you barely understand, you’ll decide to take the plunge and buy a pen and see what happens. You’ll make some mistakes, but eventually after some trial and error, you’ll start to realize just what these fountain pen aficionados are so crazy about. Or, you’ll give up because it’s too much hassle and regret having waster your money.

That’s why I decided to write this. My goal is to give someone who wants to try fountain pens for the first time a step-by-step guide on how to go from true beginner to early-stage addiction in a single concise article, all the while removing some of the intimidation and false starts that come with plunging in on our own.

The guys over at The Pen Addict have a great post for guys who are looking to get into fountain pens. It’s a good read.

As always, I always feel that the Lamy Safari is the best fountain pen for beginners. It was the first fountain pen I bought when I was just getting started.